Hidden Animal Products: Looking Beyond the Logos

by Amisha ModyApril 22, 2018

Even if you aren’t vegan yourself, you likely know someone who is, or prefer, as many carnivores do, to use vegan, cruelty-free or all natural products for your skincare and beauty routines. While vegan products have become more widely available in the last few years, if you’re looking to start out in the vegan beauty realm, it can be a bit overwhelming deciding what is and isn’t vegan while you’re shopping in stores or online.

Paying closer attention to the ingredients listed on the cosmetics and toiletries can help, but we’ve put together a handy guide for you to use when you’re shopping.

What animals are used?

A wide variety of animals contribute to cosmetics and toiletries, usually through their byproducts. Just some of the animals humans use include:

Bees (beeswax)

Beavers (castoreum)

Birds (urea)

Civets (found in perfumes)

Cows (milk, tallow)

Crabs (chitin)

Fish (fish oil, guanine)

Goats (milk)

Insects (carmine dye pigment)

Mink, Squirrel, Sable, Horse, and Goat hair (makeup brushes)

Musk Deer/Oxen (found in perfumes)

Otters (spraint)

Pigs (gelatin)

Silkworms

Shark (squalene)

Shrimp (chitosan)

Sheep (lanolin)

Sperm whales (sperm oil)

Emu (emu oil)

Snails (snail slime used in sheet masks)

and more!

Do the animals suffer?

Of course, they do. Companies kill healthy animals, birds or insects just to use them in products. For example, silkworms are often boiled, steamed or gassed to death so that their silk can be collected. Think about it like this: Would anyone use a cosmetic product that was made from a human’s kidney, especially if the human was killed just so that one organ could be used to make one product? We don’t think so.

At Saiva Naturals, we’re proud to provide our customers with a 100% vegan, cruelty-free and now Leaping Bunny certifiedproduct line. You don’t have to worry about what you’re putting on your skin because we’ve taken care of that for you.